The inhabitants of the Łódź (German: Litzmannstadt) ghetto had almost no contact with the outside world. However, the Gestapo was concerned about potential resistance to the ensuing deportations. Hence, the Information Services—Forschungsstelle A—ordered recordings of telephone conversations, and this order was carried out between March 30 and April 4, 1942.[1] However, the only incidents noted were the sirens heard in the city on March 27 and 30; no incidents were recorded pertaining to the Jews. We learn from Jewish sources that during this period the ghetto inhabitants were increasingly concerned about the daily hardships of ghetto life: among the most pressing worries were food rations and who would be selected for the deportations.[2] Writing on March 30, a number of diarists related to the recent deportations. Dawid Sierakowiak (b. 1927) noted on March 30, 1942, in his diary:
Many workshop workers whose families have received orders to leave, while they themselves were exempted, are going voluntarily with their families.[3]
On the same day, Heniek Fogel wrote in his diary:...